Nancy Pelosi Appears To Edge Closer To Impeachment In Latest Attack On Trump: ‘No One Is Above The Law’
Nancy Pelosi appeared to inch closer to support of impeaching Donald Trump, releasing a statement on Friday that provided an update on the range of investigations into Trump’s alleged misdeeds and promising to hold him accountable.
The House Speaker has been hesitant to push forward with impeachment proceedings against Trump, even as many members of the Democratic caucus have been more forthright in their desire to start the process of impeaching Trump for the instances of obstruction of justice laid out in Robert Mueller’s Russia report. But since Mueller’s congressional appearance, Pelosi appears to be moving closer toward support of impeaching Trump herself, issuing some of her strongest rhetoric yet in a statement put out on Friday.
In the statement, Pelosi offered an update on the multiple investigations against Trump across congressional committees, even taking a shot at Trump for refusing to acknowledge the ongoing attacks from Russia on the upcoming presidential election.
“[T]he Intelligence Community informs us that Russia is working 24/7 to undermine our elections,” Pelosi said in the statement. “This assault on our elections is a serious national security matter which the President chooses to ignore.”
She noted that some of the investigations are taking significant steps forward, including Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler filing a petition to obtain grand jury testimony underlining the Mueller report. The Foreign Affairs committee is also investigating what took place during Trump’s private meetings with Vladimir Putin, which the president has taken great measures to keep secret including destroying notes and refusing to brief even his own top cabinet members.
Pelosi painted the investigations as a matter of national security, saying that they must secure the elections against Russian interference.
“We owe it to our Founders to sustain our system of checks and balances and our democracy,” the statement read. “We owe it to our heroic men and women in uniform who risk their lives for freedom to defend our democracy at home. We owe it to our children to ensure that no present or future president can dishonor the oath of office without being held accountable.”
The update appeared to follow Pelosi’s previous statements on impeachment, as she said that Democrats should not move forward without solid proof of impeachable offenses by Donald Trump and strong bipartisan support. The investigations appear to be aimed at producing airtight evidence before moving forward.
After majority of House Democrats call for impeachment, Pelosi vows Trump 'will be held accountable'https://t.co/dTWavkPzVa
— Dave #VoteBlue (@dwh112655) August 2, 2019
Donald Trump has frequently put off the idea of impeachment, saying American must move on and declaring that the Mueller report left him fully exonerated. The report found no evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, but did lay out several instances that could constitute obstruction of justice. Mueller noted that the Department of Justice is barred by policy of indicting a sitting president.
In her closing statement, Nancy Pelosi took direct aim at the president.
“In America, no one is above the law,” she said. “The President will be held accountable.”
